Kraken, which is listed as one of the largest crypto exchanges, is said to be firing 30% or 1,100 of its members. The CEO Jesse Powel stated on Wednesday that the reason for taking this action is to enable them to coup and adapt to the current market conditions.
In a blog post, It was claimed by Powel that the slow growth was caused by macroeconomic and geopolitical factors and that this had dampened the demand on their customer. As a result, there was a decrease in trading volume and a decrease in the number of sign-ups.
“We had to grow fast, more than tripling our workforce in order to provide those clients with the quality and service they expect of us,” Powell said. “This reduction takes our team size back to where it was only 12 months ago,” Powel adds that he still remains positive about Kraken and crypto.
Following FTX’s collapse, crypto exchanges have endured withdrawals and regulatory scrutiny. Bankman-Fried’s crypto company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 28 and has laid off hundreds of employees in the process of trying to re-organise.
Kraken is willing to offer 16 weeks of compensation as severance and will also extend the exercise window for the affected employees.
